Cracking crypto with a clever ETF
We've all heard about Bitcoin and Ethereum. We've all seen the massive returns. We've seen institutional investors moving into the space. We've seen all the excitement and volatility and hype.
However, there's more to it - more ways to gain access to the opportunity cryptos provide - than just the headline acts.
Underneath the surface, there's an array of high-quality publicly traded companies that are the picks and shovels of this ecosystem, that are building the bridges, roadways, and tunnels that allow crypto to thrive.
This includes well-known crypto brokerages like Coinbase, which went public in April of this year with a 60 or $70 billion valuation. It includes Bitcoin-mining companies that literally secure the Bitcoin blockchain and process the transactions on the Bitcoin network.
It includes semiconductor companies that supply the hardware and infrastructure that allows that mining activity to occur. It includes asset managers like Galaxy Digital that help institutional investors access the space. And it includes other trading firms, banks that service the space, and even companies like Micro Strategy that hold crypto on their balance sheet as a core allocation. It's a complete crypto ecosystem index capturing the pure players in the market.
These companies can be grouped together as 'crypto equities': companies whose performance is closely correlated to the performance of crypto itself.
This ecosystem of crypto equities is of special interest to that large number of investors excited about Bitcoin and Ethereum, but who don't know how to value them or don't feel comfortable accessing them directly. By buying into a basket of crypto equities - in a crypto-equities ETF, for example - you can get proxy exposure to crypto asset prices themselves.
In this Fund in Focus Betashares' Cameron Gleeson and Bitwise's Matt Hougan talk BetaShares' Crypto Innovators ETF (ASX:CRYP), an exchange-traded fund bringing investors a basket of crypto equities, that provide a getting proxy exposure to crypto asset prices themselves, and listing on the ASX today.